Court rejects registrar bail plea

- Meet to decide on suspension

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Thoroughfare made easy by a broken portion of a wall of the engineering college. Picture by Ranjit Sarkar

Kalyani, March 3: The bail plea of the registrar of Kalyani Government Engineering College, who is accused of leading a group of students to ransack a police station, was rejected today and he was remanded in 11 days’ police custody.

Officials of the Kalyani college today said a meeting of the governing body would be convened soon to decide on registrar Bishnupada Biswas’s suspension. “The meeting will be held once we get a copy of today’s court order,” an administrative official of the engineering college said.

The official added that according to rules, the registrar would remain suspended until the final verdict. “If the registrar is convicted, he will be sacked. If he is acquitted, he will get back his job,” the official said.

Asked about today’s ruling, assistant public prosecutor Goutam Roy said: “The court rejected the bail petition considering the serious charges against him. He will again be produced in the court on March 14.”

Biswas, the nephew of local Trinamul MLA Ramendranath Biswas, had allegedly led to the police station nearly 200 students, some of whom had been beaten up by three outsiders they had caught drinking on the college campus.

The students had gone to lodge a complaint of inaction against a sub-inspector investigating their allegation of intrusion. At the station, some policemen allegedly beat up the students, triggering a rampage by them.

The principal of the engineering college, Krishnendu Chakraborty, declined to comment on the ruling.

“I am dejected about the overall development. I am not in a mood to speak,” he said.

Jayanta Majumder, the lawyer who appeared for the registrar, said: “I appealed for bail pointing out that he is not a habitual offender and has no criminal antecedent. I told the court that he only went to the police station along with the students to find out what action they had taken. Seeking such information falls under fundamental right. He did not take part in ransacking the police station. But the judge rejected the bail plea.”

Asked if he would move a higher court, Majumdar said: “I will consult my client’s wife Minu Biswas before appealing in a higher court for bail.”

Residents of Chandamari area of Kalyani town, where the engineering college is located, today denied allegations by a section of teachers that local people had broken a portion of the boundary wall for easy access to the campus, which was allegedly being used as a drinking den by them.

“It was during the floods in 1999 that a portion of the boundary wall collapsed. This breach helped local people to take shortcuts. The broken portion also helped students and staff to have easy access to the local market. We never broke the wall. It is true that some youths have been entering the campus and drinking liquor,” said Swapan Halder, a 43-year-old painter who stays near Chandamari market.